Mixed Media

Swapped – Painting

A new finished painting which I call Swapped. I was intrigued by the story of the Morton F. Plant House, located on the prestigious Fifth Avenue in NYC.

Apparently Cartier wanted the building, and Plant exchanged it in 1917 for 100 Dollars and a double stranded pearl necklace worth about 1,000,000 Dollars at the time. Then the necklace “only” made 151,000 USD in 1957 at an auction, so I guess that swap didn’t really work out. And so there is a jeweler and watch store up to this day in the building. There are quite some weird real estate exchange stories in NYC …this is certainly one of them. I imagined the building being just an “ordinary” apartment building -it is still so beautiful and one could only guess at how many necklaces would be needed for such a swap today! These are the things that went through my head when I painted Swapped.

The painting is 24″x18″ in size, acrylic paint, spray paint and marker on canvas.

It is available in the store here and meanwhile waits for a new home on my living room wall.

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Nat

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Not Flowery – Art Journal

For not being a flowery girl, I did an awful lot of flowery stuff lately, huh? LOL.

This spread was inspired by a mural I saw in Birmingham, UK last year- can you spot which one in the post about it?

The background was spray painted over my Kassel stencil, and the flowers are painted with acrylic paints and gouache. For the face I used neopastels.

I like how all the different paint mediums look together and play with them.


Nat

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Workshops at Runaway Art & Craft in Oregon

Last weekend I made my way to Oregon to teach at Runaway Art & Craft – look at this cool view I had from the plane of Mount Hood!

It was so lovely to meet Christy the owner- she has an amazing store – you have to check it out when you are in the area. Can you tell I loved her:

And such a cool classroom as well – spacious and well organized and hey…a brick wall …you gotta love a brick wall as well!

Saturday I taught my Stroll Through the Hood Workshop and a Master Art Express Art Journaling Workshop

Loved all the cool color combinations people started out with on their Ampersand boards in the Stroll Through the Hood Class.

 

Love this gorgeous swirly sky and the patterns on here

 

So much fun to see the different interpretations .

Loved how this was stamped with the back of my ArtFoamies Midtown Stamps and then using the door stamp from My Home is My Castle stamp set as a window- as well as my new art deco house.

It was so cool to see all the new stamps in store as well – it was the first time I was using them in a workshop – woot woot.  A lot of them sold out but she might still have a couple!

 

 

We even did a group photo- yeahhh!

Loved the art journal classes as well- loads of pattern play and color exploration.

Look at all the stencils and stamps- It is still a weird thing to see- seriously!

Here is my wonderful sunday crowd – they were so much fun too!!!

This weekend made me super happy- I just love hanging out with people that love to create and smile a lot :)

Art Journal Spread before some color hit it

 

Thank you so much to all the students for coming to the classes and spending such a fun and wonderful time with me and thank you Christy for having me! I hope I will be back some time :)

If you want to take a workshop with me in-person – some of my 2018 workshops are posted here – some i still need to add – I would love to see you ! I am super excited that I will actually be also teaching in Europe 4 times next year, I will be teaching in The Netherlands in April,  in the U.K in June together with my sweet friend Birgit Koopsen, in Germany in September, and in the U.K again in November with my wonderful friend Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. More infos soon :)

Nat

Comments (6)

  • Jackie P Neal

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    Nat,
    Such awesome photos you shared here! Obviously you taught well and these ladies were so inspired- the artworks they made are beautiful!
    My favorite photo is the one that shows all of your stamps and stencils!! What a feeling that must be to see that and to know you have realized a dream! Congratulations to you on all of your endeavors!
    Off to Rubbermoon to see your new stamps- I am so syked! (sic)
    hugs & love,Jackie

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Awe- thank you Jackie- it is indeed always a weird feeling to see the stuff in a store- kind of a like a pinch me now moment :)
      hugs and love right back :)

      Reply

  • Clavell

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    You set the tone for FUN, Nathalie! I loved your exercises in color theory and your encouragement to find our own style by exploring the work of our favorite Masters! You are a wonderful and gifted teacher! ♥

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      It was so wonderful to have you Clavell! Loved what you did with the boards and your flower -exercise was so beautiful. Have a wonderful holiday season and hopefully next year again :)

      Reply

  • Pam Hansen

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    The weekend was so awesome. It was so much fun, definetly lots of smiling and learning going on in my corner! Thank you for sharing your artsy goodness, smiles, talent and time with us.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Pam – it was so wonderful to meet you- I loved having you in class and going full in with all the creative inspiration. Have a wonderful holiday season and lots of time for artsy goodness :)

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She wished she could go back ….

“She wished she could go back to her younger self and tell her “It’s ok, to be weird, you’ll be fine” ”

This was a demo page from a class and I blocked in some color here and there and stamped with my new Exchange Place ArtFoamies Stamp. I added some stenciling with translucent acrylic paints using my Versailles Stencils – love how this turned out. I added some stamping with my Embroidery stamps to add some more even mark making using different colors of Archival Ink Pads- love those.

I painted the lady with acrylic paints neopastels and used some of the neopastels also here and there on the spread and scratched some writing into it.

I like how the lines of the Exchange Place Stamp and the floral Versailles Stencil work together.

Here are the supplies I used:


Hope you enjoy this page- have a wonderful day!

Nat

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Go and Grow – Art Journal Spread

Grow through what you go through ….still wading through it LOL

I do have to say I love how this turned out …I did the lady with a bamboo sketching pen and then added the textured background with sepia ink and the Cardboard RubberMoon Stamp Set. Don’t I wish I looked that elegant with a hat …but alas…I do not ;)

Then I colored the lady and stamping in with some watercolor and added the Stroll Through the Hood Set 1 and 2 RubberMoon sets in black with ink.

Using my new Van Vorst Positive and Negative ArtFoamies Stamps with acrylic paint, I added a ground on the bottom picking up the green color from the lady :)

Here are the supplies I used for this Art Journal Page:


Hope you are having a very wonderful day!

Nat

Comments (2)

  • Karen Bearse

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    Very unique & different I really like it. Cool sketch

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New Downloadable PDF Art Lesson: Texture Adventures #10

My latest Texture Adventures Art Lesson is now available in the NorthLightShop! This one is called Tactile Art Inspired By Street Art and for $3.99 it’s a great value – you get a full step out and a 10min video.

In this lesson I show how to create texture with spray paint for backgrounds and layered work. Inspiration is everywhere – I’m inspired by the spray paint street art that I see in my neighborhood, and I want to share with you how you can use spray paint in your art journals and mixed media projects. It’s a fun and versatile medium that isn’t just for graffiti artists :)

You can purchase the lesson here.

If you are in my area on Sunday, November 19th, I invite you to stop by the Art Mart at 313 Gallery in Downtown, Jersey City.

I will be participating in this pop-up event along with 8 other really awesome local artists. We’ll be selling unique artist-made goods, priced under $100, so it will be a nice opportunity to begin your holiday shopping. I’ll have cards, prints, mugs, and wine charms with my artwork on them :)

I hope you’ll drop by and say Hello!

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Nat

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Echo Chamber

In this journal spread I wrote “Like in an echo chamber a saddening, frightening and yet empowering #metoo echoed through the universe.”

I drew the left women with ink using a bamboo sketching pen and colored her in with watercolor- the right one is a painted on deli paper which I collaged into the art journal.

I stamped with some of my ArtFoamies stamps and acrylic paint and added some mars with Neopastels and a Charcoal pen.

Here are some of the supplies I used for this spread


Nat

Comments (2)

  • Gunvor

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    It’s a lovely spread and an important matter. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      thank you Gunvor! Yes- it is a very important matter-!

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Photos of the Workshop at Nathalie’s Studio

Last Saturday I taught my Stroll Through the Hood workshop here at home in an intimate setting and it was so fun to have 7 wonderful ladies join me. I used to teach a lot of home-workshops in Germany and I would like to do some small ones once in a while here too- this was the first time I did it:)

Here is the morning view before they all came- I had set up everything in our dining room/kitchen area

 

and lot’s of supplies were waiting to be used :)

for some fun urban sceneries.

And then there we are already in full force creating. It was so wonderful to have lovely people from Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and New York!

Katie creating some wonderful sceneries –

Jill, Theresa and Linda fully immersed :)

And then there were Donuts …of course with a Halloween theme :)

Look at the gorgeous smile Linda gave me after I tortured here to look at me ;)

And here are her gorgeous pieces- look at all those patterns and colors- yummie!

Lea’s beautiful work in progress – i love the colors!

And Maria listening to Anne and creating magic!

And Anne’s beautiful work- I love her Flat Iron building so much!

It was a great day and so I will do a workshop again at my n*Studio :) Probably in February 2018.

If you want to join any of my In-Person Workshops a list of them is posted here. I will be this coming weekend at The Queen’s Ink in Maryland (Saturday is sold out but there are still a couple seats in my Mono Print Painting class open!)

I am also teaching my last workshop for this year in Salem, Oregon at Runaway Art and Craft Studio – December 2 -3 – which includes also the Stroll Through the Hood workshop I taught here at home :) I hope you can join me for any of those -I would love to see you!

Nat

Comments (6)

  • Linda Wyatt

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    It was a wonderful and creative workshop, and great to try out new techniques and materials. Also an easy trip across the Hudson so I would love to do it again ???❤️

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      It was so good to have you Linda- and oh yea- you are soooo close :) I will keep you posted :)

      Reply

  • Jill

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    It was such a fun workshop, Nathalie! I had such a great time learning some new techniques and getting to know everyone. Such a great experience working in such a small group!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Thank you so much for coming all the way! It was so much fun to have you! Hope to see you soon again!

      Reply

  • Jean Goza

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    The artwork that was produced in the class is stunning. Looks like everyone had a great time.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      It was so much! Cannot wait to hopefully see you January when I am back in San Jose Jean! :)

      Reply

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You Belong Somewhere Where You Feel Free!

Don’t we all? Loved playing with blue and gold – I am on a weird gold- high – not sure why, as it is not my favorite color, but I guess trends have gotten me too ;)

I stamped with my new Van Vorst Positive and Negative ArtFoamies in blue and gold for the tile background effect. For the city scape I used my new Midtown ArtFoamies set and applied rubbed lightly some Artgraf Chalks on top of the foamstamps. The Artgraf Chalks are water-soluble and make a gorgeous watercolor like effect when stamping. To activate the pigments and have them come off the foam stamp, I slightly sprayed a layer of water on top and then just stamped ahead.

Love how the colors blend. I added some marks with Neopastels and a charcoal pen and wrote the journaling with a blue and white acrylic marker.

Here are some of the supplies that I used for this spread


Nat

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